OK, first of all, I want to say I LOVE Delano. I feel like I’m in a small town in western Kansas when I’m there. I wish the part of town were a little nicer (safety-wise) and there were houses with basements and I’d TOTALLY move there! That said, Karla and I didn’t intend to actually eat IN Delano (well, it’s probably still technically Delano, but I always consider Delano on Douglas). We WANTED to eat at The Biggest Cheese, but they were closed. Everybody boo The Biggest Cheese! But, seriously, if anyone knows their hours or if they’re closed for good, let me know. We will be devastated if they’re dunzo. In lieu of eating pizza, Karla drove up and down Douglas and we decided to eat at Egg Roll King. Because, HELL YEAH!

地獄呀!

First of all, I love this place because it has a drive-thru. How convenient! It’s probably good I DON’T live near Delano… And the people were REALLY nice. They have a nice selection of traditional dishes (general’s chicken, garlic chicken, sweet and sour chicken, etc.). They even notate on the sign what’s spicy (which is good for those who don’t like spicy, as well as those who want spicy). Karla picked general’s chicken and I picked garlic chicken.

They have a small dining area just to the right of the area where you order. We were the only ones in the dining room, but the drive through saw plenty of action. The food was delicious, barring only the egg rolls, which tasted like they had cinnamon in them. Maybe this is the traditional way to make an egg roll, or maybe it was a fluke, or maybe most people like them this way. But Karla and I weren’t huge fans. Would it be considered ironic that the only thing we didn’t like at a place called Egg Roll King was the egg roll? It seems ironic. However, after watching the episode of “I Love The 90s” where the dude talks about Alanis’ song, it turns out not only do I not know what irony is, Alanis is perpetuating untruths with her song. God save our generation. Plus, do you remember that movie with Joey from Dawson’s Creek where they’re trying to kill or avoid being killed by a teacher and she freaks out about Joey not knowing what irony is? It’s because of these two things I fear I’ll never truly feel confident with irony. But I’ll listen to the song when it comes on! However, I probably would never watch that dumb movie again.

Back to the topic at hand: FOOD!

The combination meals come with steamed rice and your choice of either two crab rangoons or an egg roll. We each opted for two crab rangoons, and added on an egg roll. Because you never know what you’re gonna miss! The chicken in both of our dishes was perfectly fried. I know Dillons isn’t exactly the Chinese food everyone dreams about, but let’s be honest, it’s a quick pick. And I find that while some of their chicken is fried perfectly a good percent is over-fried and dry. Not the case with this meal!

When I went to Ah-S0 this summer, I believe I decided it was my favorite place to get Chinese food (or, you know, Oriental food or Asian or however you’d categorize things of the noodle/chicken/egg roll/crab rangoon persuasion. Sorry, I’m not ethnically traveled. I mean no offense. I can say Egg Roll King had better crab rangoon. And although we considered it, we didn’t try the mandu, which I really liked at Ah-So. I got noodles at Ah-So but ended up with chicken at Egg Roll King. So, it’s not a perfect comparison. I’d say they’re on par with each other. MUCH better than Dillons. And I wish I’d gone ahead and splurged on the dumplings at Egg Roll King. If I go back, I’m getting an order!

All in all, it was great. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to eat there again, but only because Ah-So is ah-so much closer to my house. If/when I finally move, it’s very possible I might go out of my way and hit their drive-thru on the way home. Depending on where home is.

If anyone can speak intelligently about the cinnamon-y taste of the egg rolls, I’m looking to be enlightened!

OK, so here’s a definition of situational irony: “Situational irony results when well-founded expectations –- either a character’s or the audience’s –- appear to be secure but fail to manifest –- another way in which appearance and reality can wind up in contradiction.” Which is what Alanis talks about a lot.

The guy on I Love the 90s says, “It’s like rain on your wedding day” is NOT ironic. What would be ironic is if you lived in Seattle and you didn’t want to get married in the rain so you moved your wedding specifically to avoid the rain to a spot where it doesn’t rain that often. Then on the day of your wedding, it rains where you moved your wedding, but doesn’t in Seattle. THAT’S irony. Simply raining on your wedding day isn’t irony.

He went through a few of them, but I can’t remember them. Like the spoons and knives aren’t ironic. Unless you went somewhere where they always only had knives to get a knife, but then all they had were spoons. That would probably be ironic.

[…] believe I’ve already mentioned my love for Delano in my past posts about The Biggest Cheese, Egg Roll King, Delano Barbeque, and Wichita Fish Company (This is part of Delano right? I suppose as much as The […]

Love your blog and I bet the cinnamon taste is due to chinese 5 spice powder–it has all kinds of spices, clove, cardomam, cinnamon-etc. Ming’s on South Seneca is one of my favorite places for greasy Chinese. The owner is so nice and it looks like 1955 in there. They have regular eggrolls, but if you ask for “old fashioned” you get the ones with the 5 spice in them